Stanton Griffis Papers

Dates: 1900-1967.

U.S. Ambassador to Poland, 1947-1948; U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, 1948-1949; U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, 1949-1950; U.S. Ambassador to Spain 1951-1952.

The Papers of Stanton Griffis contain newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other historical documents from his personal scrapbooks relating to his public career as a United States government official and his private career as a businessman.

Size: 2 linear feet, 7 linear inches (about 4,800 pages).Access: Open.Copyright: Documents created by U.S. government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.Processed by: Carol Briley (1974); Amy Crossley (2013).Updated by: Andrew Luce (2014) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program. Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The papers of Stanton Griffis consist of newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other materials related to his business career and his diplomatic service with the United States Government. The collection is comprised of two series, the Scrapbook Newspaper Clippings File and the Scrapbook General File, both arranged chronologically.

The first series includes newspaper clippings from both domestic and foreign papers relating to the life, interests, and career of Stanton Griffis. The clippings encapsulate Mr. Griffis's rise to prominence and highlight both his accomplishments and failures. The large majority of articles pertain directly to Griffis and his career, while a small number of articles deal with topics of significance to Mr. Griffis, such as his social activities and his involvement in the motion picture industry.

The second half of the collection contains correspondence, press clippings, and other memorabilia concerning Griffis that he compiled into his scrapbook. Within the collection, there is a three part "series" in which Ambassador Griffis describes his experiences abroad in post-war Europe during his service. These provide eloquently-detailed descriptions of what he saw in war-ravaged Eastern Europe.

Many of the documents concern Mr. Griffis's service as U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Egypt, Argentina, and Spain. Business cards, radio interview transcripts, correspondence between dignitaries, and letters of scathing criticism from the indigenous populations are some of the many types of documents Mr. Griffis retained in his scrapbook.

Related collections at the Truman Library include the papers of James C. Dunn, who was the Ambassador to Italy, France, Spain, and Brazil from 1946 to 1955. Official Files 463 and 422 in the papers of Harry S. Truman include information on Poland and Spain, respectively.